Hey, I'm Jake, a Director of Software Engineering with over 11 years of experience in Product Engineering, Data Engineering, and Quality Assurance. My passion is human-focused, situationally-aware leadership with a bias for data-driven action.
Alongside my professional career, I have a passion for giving back and serve on the boards of multiple registered charities, where I provide strategic and digital leadership to support causes such as global/domestic poverty relief and cancer/mental health care.
I've worked with organisations such as the U.K. Government, BBC, Co-op, Booking.com, Gousto, Macmillan Cancer Care, and The Very Group, holding various roles including Director, Head of, Architect, Principal, Lead, and Engineer and have led teams of up to 70 people.
With 8 years of experience in engineering management, leadership, and coaching, including 4 years of direct first-line management and 4 years of first & second-line management, I am a well-rounded leader who has a track record of fostering people-focused cultures and delivering strategic digital transformations and iterative product development. I have served on senior leadership teams, operational management boards, and executive-level boards, driving results through a focus on diversity and inclusivity.
Commercially minded FinOps advocate. Having managing multi-million pound People/Cloud/Technology budgets, profit and loss accounts, timesheets and supplier invoicing/billing.
I am a hands-on leader and have been writing code for over 15 years. I have experience across multiple ecosystems, including TypeScript/JavaScript/React, Java, Swift, Lisp, AWS, GCP, and more. I enjoy using a variety of techniques such as User & Value-aligned strategy, Lean, XP, Agile, DDD, Event Storming, TDD, Ensemble Programming, Wardley Mapping, Serverless, and CQRS/EventSourcing to solve complex problems.
I’m able to work across the spectrum of disciplines and seniority to lead teams and develop products, services, strategies, and cultures. I do this empathically, deeply understanding that if you get the people bit right, the technology will follow.